


The Little Things

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: Autism, Autistic Megamind, Autistic Roxanne, F/M, and a meltdown in there too, but that happens sometimes, just them, meltdowns, supporting each other and being cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 11:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19376215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: She began to notice with the little things, the ones she didn't think he noticed himself doing anymore.





	The Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> Smol Warning: There is a meltdown in here, and mentions of unhealthy stimming (biting oneself) so! ye

She began to notice with the little things. 

Roxanne would come home-calling the Lair home always made her have a small flash of giddiness, to the point she could stop herself from hand flapping-to find Megamind sitting under his work desk, scribbling across papers, with small drawings, and the occasional bite mark, on his arms and hands. She didn't ask about it, since he never seemed to bite hard enough to draw blood, or even break the skin, but she did start buying small necklaces with chew stim toys on them. 

The bite marks were less frequent after that, but neither of them mentioned it. 

Another small random occurrence that seemed to be common enough was coming home to find Megamind no where to be seen. She'd look around, find Spikeless, who would end up leading her down to a door she had never seen open before. 

Spikeless would bowg at her once, before grabbing her wrist and leading her away again. Somehow, she understood what Spikeless wanted to tell her. Megamind was behind that door, and they wanted to be sure that she understood that he was safe. 

He'd reappear at random times, slip up behind her and cling, and then sleep for the longest she'd ever seen him sleep -almost a full eight hours-before bouncing back up and going about his normal routine. 

Roxanne didn't question it. She didn't want to pry, but, when it started building up with the other little things, she began to wonder if Megamind himself knew. Maybe it was just how his kinds' brains worked, but it seemed similar enough to hers that she began to gather other little evidences to herself. 

Minion had made adjustments to the capes before, for her benefit, after finding out she enjoyed rubbing the fabric against her palms. He had found the softest fabric he could for the capes now, and Megamind didn't seem to notice, and, if he did, he didn't care much. Roxanne had managed to steal a cape from Megamind before (after which she understood the reason he always wore it the familiar weight of the should display, the soft wisp against the back of her legs, it was a certain strange comfort that she found herself indulging in more and more) and found a few loose threads along it that... seemed to connect to nothing. 

She had asked Minion about it-he was never sloppy with his work-and Minion just laughed, adding in that she wasn't the only one he had made modifications for. 

Which, of course, led to Roxanne doing her nosy reporter thing. 

Roxanne watched Megamind with his cape for awhile, and began to realize that, when he got stressed out, or scared, or worried, the cape would come up, and he'd begin to pick at the thread, tugging at it until it unraveled into his hands and he moved onto the next one, the process repeating itself until the purposeful loose threads Minion had left for him where wrapped around his wrists in make shift bracelets, which he would unravel and pass to Minion, along with the cape, upon which Minion would resew in the thread and the process would begin again. 

So he picked at threads. He seemed to do it with his under suit as well, but not as obviously, much preferring the cape to anything else. He'd draw and chew on things (hopefully not himself anymore, she hadn't caught the bite marks there in awhile now, the most recent necklace must be a favorite then, if he started to default to that instead) and hide off in a room no one else was allowed in for some reason and then come out and sleep. 

Hm. 

This pile of evidence led her to believe that, either this was just how his kinds' brains had worked, or he was autistic. Much like herself. 

(She remembered the unfortunately long period in time, in middle school, when everything would get too much and she'd curl in on herself and bite down on the meaty part of her hand, or scratch her skin until she bled to make the feeling of wrongness go away. 

She still did it sometimes, if it was a really bad day. She wondered, briefly, if that's what he did too.) 

Roxanne still didn't ask about it. She didn't see a need to. Without even trying much, she had managed to lead him away from the more dangerous stims-she had caught a glimpse of green hidden under his shirt, bite marks in the plastic-and he seemed to have the rest of it under control. 

Of course, bad days still happened.

Roxanne had woke that morning feeling very much wrong in her skin. She knew it was going to be a bad day, she knew it was going to be hell on wheels working through it, and yet she still dragged herself from underneath the weighted blanket and began the process of getting dressed and ready. 

(She and Megamind had separate rooms, though a good amount of the time they ended up cuddled together in a pile in one or the other, both had agreed having their own space was better than sharing a room. Roxanne thought it was, in part, because Megamind's room was what he called organized chaos, and what she called the aftermath of a tornado.) 

Clothing felt wrong, but she dealt with it, even as her shirt fell against her back and sat like a second skin-she wondered if this was how snakes felt just before they shed. Her hair didn't cooperate with her, and her hands shook far too much to do her make up properly. 

Roxanne chose to go without for the day, since she didn't trust herself not to freak out if Spikeless tried to help her with it. 

She avoided the main rooms, sneaking out much like a teenager out to a party. She didn't feel up to talking much, really, wanting to save the few spoons she had for her work, even if she did miss the morning kiss. It sucked, thinking that she couldn't handle it this morning. 

Work was no better. She barricaded herself in her cubicle, headphones on and drowning out the angry buzzing noises of the computers and workers alike, trying to keep herself from sliding under her desk and sitting there until her shift ended. She did spend lunch under there though, even if it did earn her a strange look from Gary-across-the-hall. 

Shuffling back into the Lair, her skin too tight and too loose all at once, feeling everything just a bit too much, everything was just a bit too much, and she almost felt herself collapse in on herself, letting out a shaky breath before walking towards her room, settling her bag onto her bed. 

Roxanne tore apart her room in her search, all while she could hear too much, feel the shirt hang on her skin, she could almost feel the ends of her hair brushing just barely against her neck. She shivered, sliding a hand back and rubbing harshly, though it didn't help much. Finally, she found a pair of big bulky headphones, which she promptly pulled over her head, sitting in the middle of her floor and pressing them to her head. 

She didn't know how long she sat there, but it barely helped. Everything still felt too much, too there and she didn't know how to fix it. Most of the time she could figure it out, figure out the cause, the reason and fix it, but now, nothing felt right. 

A brush of a hand against her back and she flung herself away, flipping and slamming into the wall. Megamind backed up a few steps, hands up, eyes wide and worried as he looked at her. Roxanne stuttered on a breath, then keened softly, curling in on herself, bring the fat part of her hand to her mouth and biting down, rocking against the wall. 

The headphones did their job well, and she didn't hear Megamind moving, but her blurry vision picked up the black of his suit as he kneeled down in front of her, shifting and pressing something into the palm of her free hand. Roxanne whined, but the pressure helped a bit, and she focused on it a moment, before looking up to see what it was. 

The pendant of an older necklace, one that didn't stay all that long, or so she had thought, one of the softer ones, that Roxanne had noticed he didn't seem to like. Why had he been carrying it around? She looked up at him, shaking a bit, and Megamind bit the corner of his lip and pressed the pendant a bit harder into her hand. 

Roxanne paused, looking down at it, before whining lowly, closing her eyes tightly. God, she felt pathetic, there was nothing that should have set her off, nothing that could have- 

She felt his hand curl around her wrist, holding but not pulling, a tight grip that balanced her, but didn't hurt. She dragged her eyes up to him again, blinking away tears, and he just smiled at her, rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand. 

Slowly, she relinquished the hold she had, taking the pendant from him and slipping that between her teeth instead, biting down on it and dropping her head. Megamind's hand slipped away, and she was both glad for it and upset by it, at least until something heavy settled on her shoulders. 

Roxanne forced her eyes open once more, and nearly cried when she realized what it was. The weighted blanket she usually slept with, in either room, was now draped over her shoulders, where Megamind was busy working on arranging it properly. She sunk into the comfort it provided, before shifting and tugging her shirt off, throwing it half way across the room and ducking back under. 

To his credit, Megamind didn't seem all that surprised. 

Once again, Roxanne lost track of time, curled up under the blanket, chewing on the small pendant in silence, focusing on her breathing. She did notice, at some point, Megamind getting up, leaving for a bit, but coming back to sit with her. He didn't touch her again, but simply sat. He could have been talking, but Roxanne was exhausted, drained from the meltdown, enough that she didn't feel like she could reach up and taking the headphones off. 

She yawned softly, before shifting and leaning against him. Carefully, he slipped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close to him. Roxanne smiled softly, finally calm enough to slip into a quiet sleep. 

They talked later, during breakfast, after Roxanne had apologized what had to be a thousand times for not making it to dinner the night before, but Minion had waved her off with a simple "Not the first time one of you had to miss food for reasons out of your control. Won't be the last." 

(She still felt bad, so she got Minion a new apron. He was due for one soon anyways) 

"I didn't know that happened to you too." Megamind had brought it up quietly, and Roxanne simply smiled, looking over at him. 

"It hasn't been that bad in ages. Woke up feeling all sorts of wrong, so I should have expected it when everything came crashing down... usually there's a trigger to it though..." Roxanne sighed softly, looking away. She glanced down at her hand. where the bite mark still stayed. She had gotten dangerously close to breaking skin. 

"Mine don't." Roxanne looked over, seeing him smile at her. "Sure, there are things that just... trigger it sometimes, but other times it's just all the tiny things piling up until boom." Megamind hummed softly, poking at the eggs on his plate. "That's the room, upstairs and locked up? I go in there cause its dark and quiet. Nice to calm down in." 

"I figured. I kinda thought you were... Well, either you're like me, or it's just how your kinds' brains worked." Roxanne hummed softly, earning a shrug from Megamind. 

"Your guess is as good as mine, though our kind having him-" he nodded his head towards the kitchen, where Minion was babysitting toast. "-would make sense if we had all been like this..." 

Roxanne nodded softly. "It's why I started buying the pendant necklaces. I... I used to have really bad stims, the biting, scratching was another one, and I didn't like the idea that you did it too." 

Megamind nodded a bit, quiet and understanding, before looking over at her. "You say used to, but..." 

"Yeah. Like I said, it's been awhile since it's been that bad. I thought I had managed to shift the stim into something healthier, but... well, I guess I still kinda have it." 

Megamind was silent for a moment, before looking over. "That room, upstairs? I can make it so you can get in too, if you feel yourself getting like that again. Keep an extra blanket, some various pendants, headphones like the ones you had. What was playing on that?" 

"Nothing. They just cut out all noise. I could find some that can play something, but I prefer the silence most of the time anyways," Roxanne hummed, thanking Minion when he came in with toast, taking his place at the table. 

Megamind nodded again, tilting his head. "We can do that." Minion gave him a questioning look, but he just smiled, biting into a piece of toast, tilting his head a bit. 

Roxanne looked between them, watching Megamind getting caught up in his head as he planned, and Minion cutting sausage into small pieces to drop into the top of his tank. She paused, before smiling softly. 

It had begun with the little things, and yet, now, Roxanne realized, her purchase of that very first necklace wasn’t so little anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this without internet or spell check so pls be gentle


End file.
